The views expressed in this blog are based entirely on personal tastes and opinions. They should not be construed as professional reviews in anyway. Any resemblance to actual reviews, living or deceased, is entirely coincidental.

Sunday, May 06, 2012

Masa Steak & Hamburg

C says:

Major props to A’s
friend KH for suggesting this place for dinner. The guy who owns Masa
apparently also owns all the restaurants occupying that corner of Robertson
Walk, next to Wine Connection – Masa, Tori-Tama, and Yakiniku Yazawa round the
corner.

As the name suggests,
Masa serves steak and hamburger steak, but don't expect a casual, Ma Maison type place. At Masa, they only serve wagyu beef, so their prices are unsurprisingly
pretty high. Their cheapest steak is $68, going as high as $220 for a 180g
Chateaubriand, a premium cut from the tenderloin.

However, if you go for
their hamburger steak, prices are a lot less frightening - $28 for a 200g
patty, and $38 for 300g. Their starters, all featuring the same wagyu beef,
range from $20 to $28, so these are much more affordable alternatives to get
your wagyu fix at Masa.

We tried the
carpaccio, and the seared tataki. The carpaccio was fairly traditional Italian,
with thinly sliced raw beef, arugula and shaved parmesan cheese. The beef
texture and flavor were amazing – because it was raw, you could really taste
the flavor and unctuous fattiness of the waygu beef.

The seared tataki,
served Japanese style with onions in a ponzu sauce, was also good in a
different way. The sear obviously gave it more flavor and bite, but you also appreciated
the flavor of the wagyu a bit less. I honestly don’t know which I prefer, but I
do know I now want to try their steak tartare as well.

When you order your
hamburger steak, you have a choice of 3 sauces – original, demiglace and ponzu,
and 3 toppings – fried egg, garlic chips and cheese. I had the demiglace sauce
and a fried egg; A had the original sauce with garlic chips.

The garlic chips were
a bit of a letdown. They were thin and delicate but didn’t have a lot of garlic
flavor. The fried egg, on the other hand, was a great topping, since the runny
yolk just added to the already rich flavor of the beef.

The hamburger steak
itself was outstanding. Cooked medium (we weren’t given an option), the patty
was fall apart tender – you could cut it with a fork or chopsticks, and full of
flavour. I liked my demiglace sauce, as it tasted the most like a reduced
Western-style sauce, but it does get quite rich after a while. The original had
a tart edge which helped alleviate the richness, but it was also less
flavourful. Again, if you’re going with a few people I’d recommend ordering
both sauces to share, so that you get the best of both worlds.

Unless you’re very
hungry, I’d recommend just getting the 200g patty, since it’s quite rich and it
does get a bit monotonous after a while. Better to have more variety by
ordering the smaller patty and having a couple of the awesome starters as well.

Ask them about their
desserts, because the menu isn’t the most informative (only listing Ice Cream,
Sherbet and Dessert of the Day). Tonight they had vanilla and caramel ice
creams, peach sherbet, panna cotta and gateau chocolat. A had the panna cotta,
which was pretty good, and my caramel ice cream rocked. It was a burnt caramel,
much like the one at Kazu http://atetoomuch.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/kazu.html,
so it wasn’t cloyingly sweet and was a perfect way to end the meal.

An amazing find. We’ll
definitely be back.

A says:

I recommend the
starters (under $30 each). The hamburg steak is good and still affordable.
We’ll definitely be back for that combo.

For a casual dinner,
the conventional steaks are just too rich (in price) for my blood though. With
the chateaubriand costing over $200, they better be good too. Maybe for a very,
very, very, vey special occasion. Like winning the lottery.